1900s

1900

Maria Smith nee Lock is living with her children on a public reserve at Terrey’s Creek, Epping. (J.L.Kohen, The Darug and their Neighbours, Darug Link, 1993, p. 88)

Aboriginal Protection Board minutes; Rooty Hill. Rations discontinued to family of George Stubbings. According to his granddaughter, Anne Dival, he was selected to tour England with an Australian cricket team in late nineteenth century.

1901

The ethnographer Bennett records a sentence in Gandangara meaning ‘I’m going to get off’. The sentence has many associations for Gandangara people. The historian Jim Smith writes, [of the word Katoomba] ‘It would have evoked the memory of groups of women digging up fern roots, washing them in the Cox River, and beating the roots with their special “Katoom” stones, all of this activity taking place under the brooding eyes of one of the monoliths overlooking the fern fields. Katoom fern harvesting would have been time to exploit the maximum starch levels in the roots, probably in summer. The sound of Katoomba was the beat of “Katoom” stones on wooden boards. Katoomba was located at the junction of many pathways from all directions, including those connecting the fern fields to King’s Tableland, the Upper Kedumba Valley, Kia Range, Kiaramba Range by the Policeman Ridge, and the Lower and Middle Cox River areas via the Riverside pathways. Katoomba lies on the Dreaming pathways of Gurangatch and Mirragan and was the site of one of the ancestor Gurangatch’s excursions to Reedy Creek. It was the location of one of the deep pools where Gurangatch rested. Katoomba would have also been located, in Gandangara minds, within the area of many salt springs, near a small cave of medicinal water. It was close to the pathway through the clearings, maintained by burning to attract macropods, and a few hours walk away from the Cedar Creek Art cave. All of the associations would have been brought up by the word Katoomba. All of the associations would have brought the word Katoomba alive for Gandangara people and precisely located it in their mental landscape. Smith, p. 631.

Petition from the Aboriginal residents of Black Town, Freemans Reach for the
clearing, forming and gravelling of a portion of the main Blacktown Road.

The United Aborigines Mission (UAM) is established on land donated by William Locke, known as the Plumpton Mission.

Billy Lynch moves to the Gully, Katoomba. He may have chosen to move to the Gully to avoid the restrictions of the managed reserves of the Aborigines Protection Board. (Johnson 21, 80)

Families represented in the Annual Census of the Aborigines Protection Board are Shepherd, Hughes, Cooper, Stubbings, Lynchs, Susans, Armato and Cole. Seven Locke men and three Stubbings are eligible to vote. (J.L.Kohen, The Darug and their Neighbours, Darug Link, 1993, p. 112)

Katherine Anne Reynolds (Mrs Thomas Fiaschi), an ex nun, teaches music to the Darug families living at Sackville Reach . They learn violin and piano and singing. An Aboriginal performing group plays gum leaf and guitar at community gatherings around Windsor. The Barber and Everingham families are involved. Chrissy and Milly Barber daughters of John Luke Barber from Sackville become fine musicians.

1902

Grand children of Martha Hobbs Everingham (Madha Hibbs) live on a farm near St Thomas’s Church, Windsor, and at Sackville Reserve. Some of the family are buried at St Thomas' Cemetery, Sackville.

Australian Town and Country Journal, 14 June p 15 Article. The Court heard the case of Jack Johnston, Aboriginal, who was charged with alleged manslaughter of another Aboriginal.

1903

Darug man, Alfred Locke dies at the gully. He is descended from Maria and Robert Locke.

Kohen believes that the ethnographer R.H. Matthews referred to ‘Dharruk’ (Darug) probably for the first time in print. (J.L. Kohen, A Dictionary of the Dharug Language’ 1984, p. 2)

1904

Birth of Kathleen Moran, she marries Roy Burke.

The ethnographer Matthews describes Gu-ru-gnaty living in a lagoon near Sackville ‘Gu-ru-gnaty is the name of an aquatic monster. He resides in deep waterholes, and would drown and eat strange blacks, but would not harm his own people. He usually climbed a tree near the water, from which he kept a look out. If he saw a stranger approaching, he slid down and dived into the water, without making a splash, or leaving any ripple on the surface. As soon as the individual began to drink, he was caught by Gurrugnaty.

1905

John Luke Barber dies at Windsor Hospital.

26 Kooris are listed as living at Katoomba, 93 at Sackville Reach, 2 at Parramatta, 26 at Blacktown Road. Aboriginal Protection Board Report, 1906, p.10). A number of children are removed by the Aborigines Protection Board from the Gully at Katoomba. Some are transferred to Bakersville Home and some to Bomaderry UAM Home.

1906

The UAM church at Sackville reserve is booming. People travel with the missionaries to the Georges River and La Perouse, Katoomba, and to St Clair reserve, near Singleton.

Rachel Everingham marries Alfred Barber in Windsor, NSW.

1908

The death of Mrs Castles leaves Thomas Castles to look after six children. One of them is Edward George Castles, all of the children are taken from their father and placed in the Bomaderry Home for children.

Children of the Castles/Castle family are removed from the Plumpton Mission to Bomaderry United Aborigines Mission Home. Members of the families begin to disperse to other areas of the state, including Nowra . (J.L.Kohen, The Darug and their Neighbours, Darug Link, 1993, p.85)

1909

Commonwealth Defence Act: excludes Indigenous Australians from the Armed Forces. Indigenous Australians have already been barred from employment by the Post Office.

The Aborigines Protection Act, 1909 (NSW) grants the Aborigines Protection Boardfull control and custody of Indigenous children including the power to apprentice Indigenous children aged between 14 and 18 years. [The first 'Aborigines Protective' legislation was in Victoria in 1869, Aborigines Protection Acts (Vic.) (1869, 1886), which became a model for others].

Death of Mary Ann Bartle nee Thomas, she is buried next to her husband William Bartle at St Matthews Church of England cemetery, Windsor.

Church life at Sackville begins to decline as missionary Retta Dixon (Long) is transferred away from Sydney. The APB Annual Report lists the combined populations of Windsor, Blacktown Rd and Sackville Reach as only 83 (Annual Report, p. 18)